From the Editor: Julie Reiskin is the executive director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition (CCDC), and as evidenced in her remarks and the welcome she received, she and Scott had a close working relationship that helped create better laws and a friendlier state for blind people and those with other disabilities. Here is what she said:
Thank you, Kevan. I’m really honored to be here. I don’t remember the first time I met Scott, but I remember the impression: surprise, surprise, it was his voice! It was so confident, and it just oozed assurance that so many of us with disabilities have to fight to get or don’t have at all. His presence in the room just permeated victory in a way that was so contagious that losing just wasn’t going to be an option; we were going to win. And even if we didn’t win, there was no time for self-pity or group pity; it was just about how to re-strategize and figure out how we are going to win later. Always it was keeping our eyes on the prize of inclusion.
I was lucky enough to work with Scott on many bills, some of which were mentioned by our lieutenant governor, but I have also been honored to watch Scott litigate a case. I was honored to be able to lobby with him in DC. We were both there in the Colorado section of the American Bar Association lobby week. I was there to lobby for civil legal aid money, which of course he totally supported, and he was there on the Marrakesh Treaty, and I was thrilled to learn about that. Of course, Scott was the only one in the group who could find his way around DC or around the winding halls of Congress, because none of us sighted people could figure that out.
I’ll always be grateful about how Scott and the rest of the Federation and the Colorado Center for the Blind with Julie, Kevan, Dan, and others, welcome and work so well with the broader disability community. I don’t think that happens in every state, and I’m really proud of how we are not siloed in Colorado and that we can work together without watering down the important disability-specific issues. The work of the NFB and CCB are the model of disability empowerment.
Like everyone else, I relied on Scott professionally, and it’s been jarring the last few weeks to be ready to forward Scott a bill with the question of “What are we going to do about this?” and then realize that he’s not there. But I know that he worked so hard to build a strong organization and that there are so many other people that we really look forward to working with more closely.
On a personal level, I think that what Scott gave me is something more important. Years ago, he invited me to tour the CCB as well as to come to NFB conventions, and what I saw there was a strong, incredible organization sustained over decades that helped produce many, many thriving and proud people with disabilities. I’ve always said that NFB is what I want CCDC to be when we grow up. Of course, we are thirty-three, so maybe it’s time we move out of the basement, but NFB as an organization and the Center are ones we hold in so much esteem.
Of course, the NFB convention is the only large event that I ever attend or have ever attended where I don’t get bumped into constantly. I use a wheelchair that weighs over 350 pounds, but for some reason sighted people can never quite see me. But when I’m with a bunch of blind people, it’s never a problem. Scott opening up my world to this community has really been priceless and really helped with my own visioning. So I don’t want to think about doing advocacy work without Scott, but life is not about what we want, and the best way I know to honor Scott’s legacy is to work harder and smarter and with that confidence that he always exuded, to use the laws that he helped create, and to continue fighting discrimination. I know that everyone here is committed to doing that. Thank you.